THE COPY FOR
AS TOU LIKE IT, 1623
The First Folio is our sole authority for the text of
As You Like It\ and as the copy for the play was entered
to Blount and Jaggard in the Stationers' Register on
8 November 1623, together with such of the rest of
*Mr. William Shakspeers Comedyes, Histories and
Tragedyes.,.as are not formerly entred to other men,'
it is pretty certain that it had not previously appeared in
print. Another entry in the Register suggests, however,
that it narrowly escaped being printed twenty-three
years earlier. The entry in question is the famous note
of 4 August 1600, directing four plays belonging to the
Lord Chamberlain's Men 'to be staied'; the four being
As Tou Like It, Henry r> Every Man In his Humour^
and Much Ado. This staying order, which Dr A. W.
Pollard interprets as a precaution by Shakespeare's
Company against an anticipated piracy1, was frustrated
as far as Henry 7 was concerned, seeing that a pirated
text of this play was issued in 1600, though whether
before or after the order is unknown, and was of merely
temporary service as regards Muck Ado and Every Man
in his Humourj which were also published in the same
year, though after due entry in the Register and doubt*
less with the full consent of the company to which they
belonged. But with As You Like It the order was both
effective and absolute. From this it may reasonably be
inferred that As Tou Like It was a popular play with
London theatre-goers in 1600. That the pirates were
after them shows that all four plays had won sufficient
renown on the stage to be worth stealing; that the
players were, on the other hand, willing to release the
1 Shakespeare Folios and Quartos, p. 67.